Difference between Dowry and Alimony

Twitter and Quora are my favorite source of entertainment as well as news.I simply love the way, how some people call themselves as flag bearers and activist on the internet, yet refuse to help someone, who has fallen on the road before him. A couple of such people that I read are the feminist and the misogynist, not the real ones, the fake ones.

So the recent, topic that I have come across, on a lot of platforms, wherein topic of independent women,come into question is

“If it is illegal to claim Dowry, then it should be illegal to claim Alimony“.

I am sure both the people who make this statement, are not aware the basic concept behind these two words and are just arguing for the sake of argument. There is a huge difference between these two words.

When you say Dowry, it is the demand that is made by the entire family of the groom, or the groom before marriage, in terms of cash, gifts or services, to be given by the bride’s side on or before the wedding day and sometimes subsequent to that also. These amounts may be in the name of gold jewelry, to the groom’s family, an expensive honeymoon, or just to fulfill, the monetary requirement as per the whims and fancies of the groom’s family. Dowry is a tradition, that is more of a status symbol and is based on the qualification of the groom. The more the qualified the groom, the more dowry he demands.

Marriage is a union of two souls, where both partners, need to contribute to make their own family. But, in India, marriage is all about, how much can you show off to the world, because it is more important to hold up your image in front of the world, than understanding the burden on the bride’s family.

Coming down to the concept of Alimony, in simple terms, Alimony is an amount, that is granted by the Court of Law, on legal divorce of the couple. Recently, many courts have refused to grant alimony to women, who are working and are well settled, but the courts do grant alimony and property rights to children, of such couples, because, it is not their fault that their parents are not compatible and they are thrown into sudden hardships. Alimony is a legal provision and can be granted only through proper procedure, even if the individuals may demand any amount.

In many communities, Dowry is a mandate for any girl to get married, without dowry, no marriage can happen but without alimony, a Divorce may happen. Even by large, the society today does not accept divorced women or women abandoned by their husbands, or women who are without husbands, as a part of our society, but men are happily welcomed with open arms, in our society post divorce.

Yes. There are false cases of dowry and there are equal number of cases, where men have outright refused to pay alimony to their wives by making false allegations against them. But generalizing, the two concepts is nothing but stupidity. Many a times, in the process of just demeaning something or just discouraging someone, we forget to differentiate the basic reasoning behind a particular concept.